3:47 E.S.T. [AKA: KLAATU]

Forget all the Beatles rumour crap -- that was an albatross around this fine band's neck that they were never able to escape. It both made them "famous" (sorta, for about 14 minutes) and ruined their chances of ever being taken seriously on their own terms. It is worth noting that the band chose to be anonymous NOT to fuel some bogus Beatle reunion rumour, but simply because THEY ESCHEWED "FASHION" ENTIRELY AND WANTED THEIR MUSIC TO STAND ON IT'S OWN!! And as far as that goes -- well, a lot of people thought they were the freakin' BEATLES, so obviously they had something special going on.

I admire the hell out of this band -- the material on their first album was entirely self- recorded and produced (they all had day jobs working as engineers in Toronto recording studios, in fact John Woloschuck has a technical credit on one of Rush's early LP's) -- and this was in the old days before ProTools and all the easy studio gimmickry of today. It's no exaggeration to say that the effort they put into their debut was on the magnitude of recording "Sgt Pepper" on a 4-track, because the production here is exquisite and uses every trick in the book, so much so that that the production outshines the material on some numbers (like "California Jam" for instance, which is a corny throwaway Beach Boys style number, but daaaaamn it sounds good!)

If you're a real serious prog-head, you may not find much to like here -- but if you like late period Beatles, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd -styled VERY WELL PRODUCED "Art" pop-rock then this album is very well worth a listen, as is their criminally under-rated 3rd LP "Sir Army Suit."